COMPANY NEWS

Greg Paupst was appointed President, GVA Lighting effective March 1, 2010.  The CEO and Owner of the Company, Vladimir Grigorik, realized that it was timely to set in motion the building of a management structure that would move the Company ahead in accordance with its growth strategy.

Greg is a results-oriented executive with an extensive career in operations and business development. His experience includes start-up enterprises, quality/business systems implementation, strategic international partnership development and business turn- arounds. He has an executive level background in labour relations, human resources, engineering, sales and marketing, manufacturing, and cross-cultural negotiation.

Greg has successfully negotiated numerous international technological exchange agreements, joint ventures and licensing agreements with Korean, Japanese, U.S., European, Mexican and Canadian firms.

He led the construction of a greenfield manufacturing facility thereby establishing a significant market base in Mexico. He also led the building of an advanced technology facility in Detroit for automotive acoustics (sound abatement).

As chief executive of one company, Greg consolidated of a number of manufacturing locations in a new greenfield manufacturing employing Lean Manufacturing techniques. The manufacturing facilities adopted a number of best-in-class Japanese manufacturing practices.

He led his manufacturing/engineering teams on numerous trips to Japan and Korea to meet with the parent companies of the North American New Domestics automotive manufactures. The team succeeded in clearly understanding and implementing the requirements and expectations of their North American New Domestic customers. This strategy brought major gains in market share with companies such as Toyota, North America.

He has a B.A. in Psychology from Wilfrid Laurier University. Greg his wife Linda live in Waterloo, just west of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Greg can be reached at Greg.Paupst@gvalighting.com

It was a long journey for us to find an appropriate ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software for our type of business. About a year ago we realized that the Microsoft Dynamics package purchased in 2007 was a bad fit for us.

After rigorous evaluation of other ERP solutions we chose ERP123 from a local software company, who promised to deliver all features we are looking for: complex product configurator, strong manufacturing, MRP and inventory control modules along with powerful CRM and accounting. We believe that we have found a good solution and it will help to improve the following critical aspects of our business:

• Allows quick reply to your requests about product availability and promising lead-time;
• Reduce production lead-time;
• Speed-up all communications;
• New forms of Quotations, Sales Orders and Invoices will have abbreviation and detailed description of the quoted or supplied products. It should avoid or minimize miscommunication errors for order processing and manufacturing.

A brand new design of the GVA Lighting website was launched at the end of December 2009. The focus of new design was to help first time and experienced visitors to get as much information as possible about the Company, GVA’s products and projects and as quickly as possible. We believe that we have achieved that goal by using multiple cross links and quick links for the most popular products.

We spent a great deal of time on the aesthetic aspects of the website and hope that you will like it.

The new website has 5 main Sections: COMPANY, PRODUCTS, PROJECTS, APPLICATIONS and NEWS & EVENTS. In the COMPANY section you will find detailed information about the Company: OUR PHILOSOPHY, FACTS ABOUT GVA, SALES NETWORK, PATENTS & TRADEMARKS, CAREER, CONTACT US and DIRECTIONS. I would encourage you to read all these sections. We put our values and goals in writing as it is important for us to deliver this message to you, our partners, so you know who you are dealing with. Please check all your contact data on SALES NETWORK to make sure that the website has your latest, up to date information.

PRODUCTS section will be your main source for the technical papers on our products. You will find most of the product pages with key documentation: Product Guides, Specifications, Product Configurator, Installation Instructions, Wiring Diagrams and the links for the Photometry Files. Please pay attention to the date when the file was created and make sure you always have the latest version. We also recommend keeping track of changes by signing up for RSS news from our website. On each product page you can find Recommended Accessories for each products and application examples with appropriate links to reference projects.

The main purpose of the PROJECTS section is to demonstrate our up to date achievements. We have a long list of successful projects you probably are not aware of yet. The new website shows them in detail with pictures and video. Projects are broken down by Applications, such us Architectural, Retail & Display, Entertainment etc.

The 4th section is APPLICATIONS with subsections on Exterior and Interior LED Lighting and Fluorescent Lighting. You will find many application sub-sections such us Bridge Illumination, Media Facades, Wall Grazing etc.

NEWS & EVENTS is designed to help you to stay informed about all happenings with GVA Lighting.

We still have a lot to do to complete our intention to have the website as informative as possible. Some parts of the menu are still under development. For example Agent’s Area to be a secure portal for the agents with access to our database, helping to see the status of the orders and track shipments. HOW TO section is designed to have a supportive information like videos with installation and wiring tips. This section will help to answer Frequently Asked Questions in a simple visual format.

Our intention for 2010 is to launch the website in three more languages: German, Spanish and Russian.

Your feedback on the new design is welcome and encouraged! Please send all your comments to webmaster@gvalighting.com and Brandon Smith (in charge of website support) and we will be glad to improve it.

The Canadian Intellectual Property Office has filed STR8 and STR9 as Registered Trade Marks of GVA Lighting, Inc.

GVA Lighting, Inc. is the recipient of the 2009 CSAE/SCGR (Canadian Society of Biological Engineers) Industrial Award. This award recognizes and honours GVA for producing a distinguished lighting product and service requiring significant engineering skill, which has contributed significantly to agriculture. GVA Lighting, Inc. has committed to supplying the agriculture industry with a superior lighting product which meets poultry and livestock's specific needs. GVA developed a linear fluorescent lighting system that is fully dimmable and is suitable for use in barns completely reliant on artificial light sources or in barns with plenty of natural light.

Light quality and quantity are essential in poultry and livestock housing. GVA's digital dimming linear fluorescent lighting system includes a dimmable ballast and a controller designed specifically for the needs of the agriculture industry. This versatile and durable lighting system mimics dusk and dawn and allows daylight harvesting. It gives producers the ability to deliver a more natural light environment within the barn, to adjust the light schedule according to the stage of production, and to harvest daylight in facilities which allow plenty of natural light to enter, reducing electrical energy use in the order of 55 to 60%.

GVA Lighting, Inc. is committed to providing high quality lighting products for the agriculture industry. Our commitment leads us to work in conjunction with agricultural engineers in the development and testing of new products at our own expense, and to supply design services to producers to ensure proper light distribution and adequate light levels. Through our forward thinking and commitment to the industry, GVA is continuing our efforts to improve poultry lighting by investigating the potential use and benefits of LED lighting systems.

For more detailed information on this lighting system please see the fluorescent lighting page.

GVA Lighting has a new logo and corporate image to match.

We do our business globally and Europe is a strategic market for GVA Lighting. To be successful in these very competitive markets, North American companies should demonstrate new ideas, advanced designs, great product quality and excellent sales support in every country. GVA Lighting exhibited at Light+Building 2008 in Frankfurt, Germany last April, among just 24 other North American companies. To create a sales network in the European Union we invited a well known European LED specialist, Detlef Eobaldt, to become our representative for Western Europe.

With nearly 20 years experience in the lighting industry, Detlef dedicated almost half of this time towards LED lighting. With his passion for this technology and a solid technical and commercial background, he successfully promoted brands such as LagoLED, DecaLED, V:LED, FlexLED on the international marketplace. He was involved in multiple international "Architainment" LED projects: Shakira's "Moongoose Tour", Jon Bon Jovi's "Bounce Tour", several cruise ships from Carnival line, Holland-America line, Platinum Yachts, a large number of TV shows in several countries, "Konzerthaus" Berlin, "Kaisersaal" Berlin, Supperclub Rome and many more.

Located in Germany, Detlef can be reached by email at Detlef.Eobaldt@gvalighting.com